History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 75

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. II > Part 75

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Thomas M. Stuart received a collegiate edu- cation at Queen's College. Belfast. Leaving col- lege he served an apprenticeship with a wholesale dry-goods house at Belfast. In 1874 he came to the United States, and for six months clerked in a large mercantile house at Indianapolis, Indiana.

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In 1880 he engaged in the importation of woolen goods, which he distributed from New York city, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and other centers. He was engaged in this line of business until 1890, when, his health failing, he came to South Dakota and in 1892 engaged in farming and stock raising in Marshall county. In 1902 he was elected by the Republican party to the office of register of deeds. Mr. Stuart continues his farming and stock raising, making a specialty of shorthorn cattle and Arabian horses. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Work- men, Degree of Honor and Brotherhood of Amer- ican Yeomen organizations.

Mr. Stuart married Genevieve Kingsbury, who was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of Benjamin Kingsbury, an oil man of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Stuart are members of the Presby- terian church.

JOHN J. REES is a native of Wales, having been born on the 21st of January, 1839, and being a scion of stanchi old Welsh stock. His paternal grandfather, George Rees, was a farmer of Pembrockshire, as was also the maternal grandfather, John Johns. The subject was the eldest of the four children born to William and Elizabeth (Johns) Rees, the latter of whom died when he was but nine years of age, while his father later contracted a second marriage. In 1852, when the subject of this sketch was a lad of twelve years, his father came with his family to America and settled near Utica, ()neida county, New York, where he engaged in farming, a vo- cation which he had followed in his native land. He remained in the old Empire state until 1857, when he removed with his family to Portage county. Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1860, after which the members of the family became scat- tered, the home being broken up.

Jolın J. Rees secured his preliminary edu- cational training in the schools of his native land, and after coming to the United States continued his studies in the common schools as opportunity afforded, while he early began to render his

father effective assistance in the work of the farm. He continued to be identified with agri- cultural pursuits until the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, when he showed his loyalty to the country of his adoption by tendering his services in defense of the Union. On the 21st of April, 1861, he enlisted as a member of Com- pany F, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, this being one of the first regiments recruited and sent into the field from Ohio, in the three- months service. After the expiration of his original term Mr. Rees re-enlisted, for three years, and thereafter continued at the front until physical disability compelled his retirement from the service. Upon being mustered in his regi- ment was sent to Benwood, West Virginia, and the year 1861 was passed in that state. He par- ticipated in the battle of Cross Lanes and in De- cember of that year the regiment moved to Romney, West Virginia, where it lay in camp until the following March. In the spring of 1862 the subject took part in the battles of Winchester and Port Republic, and later was in the engage- ment at Cedar Mountain and in the second battle of Bull Run. Soon afterward he suffered a severe attack of malarial fever, and he never fully recovered from the effects of the disease, his disability finally becoming such that he received his honorable discharge on the 4th of March, 1863. He thereupon returned to his home in Ohio, where Governor David Tod gave him a captain's commission in the Home Guard, in which he served until the close of the war. He purchased a farm of fifty acres in Ohio and gave his attention to its cultivation, in so far as his health would permit. In 1867 he leased a tract of coal land and continued to engage in coal mining and farming for the ensuing thirteen 1 years, meeting with excellent success.

In the spring of 1883 Mr. Rees disposed of his property in Ohio and came as a pioneer to what is now the state of South Dakota. Locating in Edmunds county, he entered claim to the southwest quarter of section 15. Powell town- ship. He secured pre-emption and tree claims at this time and later a homestead, the three tracts constituting one body, and by hauling lum-

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ber and supplies from Aberdeen, thirty-five miles distant, was able to erect a good house and establish a comfortable home, his provisions in this line being far better than those of the average pioneers of the section and period. At that time no other buildings were to be seen from his home, and to the east of his place there were but a few shanties to indicate the claims of the new settlers. Mr. Rees is now the owner of a finely improved landed estate of four hun- dred and eighty acres, and also leases additional land, having control of and cultivating all of section 15. Powell township.

From the early days Mr. Rees has been a prominent figure in local affairs of a public na- ture, and he was one of the first to be elected justice of the peace in the county, while in 1898 he was given a distinctive token of popular esteem in being elected to represent his district in the state legislature, while his fidelity and able service in the capacity gained to him unqualified commendation on the part of his constituency. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, having voted for Abraham Lincoln and having never since wavered in his fealty to the "grand old party." He has served many times as a member of the Republican central committee of Edmunds county and has rendered effective aid in the various campaigns in the county.

In 1863 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rees to Miss Mary A. Thomas, a daughter of John W. Thomas, of Talmage, Ohio, in which state she was born and reared. Of their children we enter the following brief record: William is engaged in the grain business at Ipswich, the county seat of Edmunds county ; Frank is en- gaged in the general merchandise business in that place ; Arthur ; George, and Hattie. Ida and Edith remain at the parental home.

JOEL W. PARKER .- Most consistently may we enter memoir in this work to one who stood as one of the honored citizens and pioneer business men of Sioux Falls, and who through the long years of an active and useful life ever re- tained the high regard of his fellow men, by rea-

son of his sterling attributes of character. Joel Webster Parker was born on a farm in Oneida county, New York, on the 28th of March, 1817, being a son of Joel and Mary ( Benham) Parker, the former of whom was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and the latter in Hartford, Connecticut, while both families, of English ex- traction, were early established in America, hav- ing been founded in New England in the colonial epoch of our national history. The paternal grandmother of the subject was a cousin of the renowned lexicographer. Noah Webster. Mr. Parker was educated in the common schools of the old Empire state, where he was reared to maturity on the homestead farm and where he continued to maintain his residence until about 1836, when he removed to Ohio, where he re- mained until 1841. when he numbered himself among the pioneers of Illinois, where he was en- gaged in the merchandise business, selling goods from a wagon, as was the general custom of the locality and period, the major portion of the mer- cantile business of the section being accomplished by this method. In 1852 he opened a general store in Warren, Jo Daviess county, that state, where he built up a prosperous enterprise, there continuing operations until 1868, when he re- moved to Hillsboro, Vernon county, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in the same line of en- terprise until 1875. He then removed to Mill- ston, Jackson county, that state, where he estab- lished himself in the mercantile and lumber busi- ness, continuing operations there until 1879. when his health became so impaired as to prompt his removal to what is now the state of South Da- kota, in the hope of recuperating his energies under the invigorating climatic conditions. He accordingly disposed of his business in Wiscon- sin and took up his abode in Sioux Falls, which was then a small and straggling frontier town. Here he engaged in the retail lumber business in company with his son. James W., concerning whom specific mention is made on another page of this compilation. The enterprise was orig- inally conducted under the firm name of J. W. Parker & Son, and upon the admission of James W. Leverett to the firm the title was changed to

JOEL WEBSTER PARKER.

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the Sioux Falls Lumber Company, under which name the business has since been continued, his son being now at the head of the concern.

In 1886 Mr. Parker disposed of his interest in this enterprise and thereafter devoted his at- tention to the management of his various capi- talistic and property interests. He was always found in the forefront as a progressive citizen. lending his influence and tangible aid in the pro- motion of all measures tending to conserve the material upbuilding and the civic advancement and prosperity of his home city and state, while his circle of friends was ever coincident with that of his acquaintances. One who has all of reason to appreciate him and his sterling character has spoken of him as follows: "He was a most kindly, lovable, Christian gentleman, and all of his friends and acquaintances are the better for having known him."

Mr. Parker did much for the material ad- vancement of Sioux Falls, having erected a num- ber of good buildings and having been a gener- ous subscriber to public enterprises. In politics he gave his allegiance and stanch support to the Prohibition party, and thus showed in a sig- nificant way, as did he in all the relations of life, that he had the courage to stand boldly forward as an advocate of and worker for those principles which he believed to be right. He was hu- manity's friend, and as such did all in his power to uplift his fellow men and enrich their lives, this spirit. not less than definite principle, accounting for the exalted attitude which he maintained in political matters. He was an uncompromising foe to the liquor traffic, as was he to all else that tends to lower the standard of human ideals, and his labors in the moral field, in which he taught not less by personal example than by precept and kindly admonition, were such as to justify the revering of his memory for all time to come. While Mr. Parker thus took an active concern in public affairs, he never sought or desired the honors or emoluments of office, and withheld himself from the contentions and turbulence of active political affairs. He was one of the zeal- ous and influential members of the Freewill Baptist church of Sioux Falls, and was a deacon

in the same at the time of his death, having rested from his labors and passed forward to the life eternal on the 14th of April, 1893, at the vener- able age of seventy-six years. He was a distinct man, one of forceful individuality and one whose life counted for good in an ever-widening angle of beneficent influence.

On the 26th of February, 1845, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Parker to Miss Mary W. Colburn, who died on December 6th of the following year, without issue. On the 23d of July, 1848, he was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca Brown Colburn, who survives him. She was born in Sacket Harbor, New York, being a daughter of Charles and Rebecca Colburn and a lineal descendant of Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who came from England to America in 1636. Mrs. Parker still resides in Sioux Falls, surrounded by a wide circle of devoted friends and sustained and comforted by the gracious and hallowed memories of the past and the hope of the future reunion with the loved and devoted husband by whose side she walked down the pathway of life for so many years. She became a member of the Presbyterian church prior to her marriage, but afterward at- tended the Freewill Baptist church, of which her husband was a member, formally identifying herself with the same and becoming an active factor in the church work. Mr. and Mrs. Parker became the parents of seven children, namely : George and Mary E., who are deceased: Carrie A .: James W., who is individually mentioned elsewhere in this work; Jessie R., wife of Rev. J. C. Mitchell, pastor of the Unitarian church of Lebanon, New Hampshire : Fannie C., and Saralı, who is deceased.

CHARLES ALBERT LUM, well-known citizen of Aberdeen, South Dakota, and treasurer of the Aberdeen Mill Company, was born at Utica, New York, October 23, 1849, the son of Charles L. and Cornelia (Battel) Lum, both of tives of New York state, and both now deceased.

Charles A. Lum was reared at Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, New York, to which point

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his parents removed from Utica. In 1869 he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where for fifteen years he held the position of cashier in a large wholesale and jobbing house. In July, 1885, he came to Aberdeen and became interested in the milling business, and has since continued. He was for a time secretary and treasurer of the Dakota telephone lines.

Mr. Lum married Anna Elliott, the daughter of Charles Elliott, of Louisville, Kentucky, and to this union two sons and one daughter have been born, namely : Elliott, Berenice and Robert. Mr. Lum is a member of the Masonic order, and he and family belong to the Episcopal church.

JAMES H. SHEPARD, who occupies the chair of chemistry in the State Agricultural Col- lege at Brookings, is a native of the state of Michigan, having been born in Lyons, Ionia county, on the 14th of April, 1850, a son of Dan- iel E. and Lydia M. (Pendell) Shepard. His grandparents in the paternal line were Seth and Ruth (Perry) Shepard, natives of the state of Vermont, and John Shepard, the eminent jurist of New York, was of the same family line. The father of the subject was one of the sterling and honored pioneers of Michigan, and at the time of his death, in 1855, he was engaged in farming at Pewamo, that state, being survived by his widow and their two sons, James H., the imme- diate subject of this sketch, and William E. The latter was imbued with the spirit of adventure and in 1870 he went on a prospecting tour for gold in British Columbia, and nothing has since been heard from him or the members of his party. There was a great uprising of the Indians in that section at the time and it is supposed that the valiant little party suffered death at the hands of the savages.

Professor Shepard was but five years of age at the time of his father's death and he was then placed in the home of his paternal uncle, W. Proctor Shepard, of Maple Rapids, Michigan, with whom he remained two years. At the expi- ration of this period he became an inmate of the home of his maternal uncle, Henry Pendell, while

two years later he found a permanent home with Albert W. Reynolds, an influential farmer and capitalist, residing near Concord, Jackson county, Michigan. He remained with Mr. Reynolds until he was able to depend upon his own resources, having attended the public schools until he had attained the age of eighteen years. He then en- tered Albion College, at Albion, Michigan, paying his expenses through his own efforts and there continuing his studies for three years. After completing his sophomore year, classical course, he became principal of the schools at Athens, Calhoun county, that state, retaining this in- cumbency one year, after which he was matric- ulated in the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he completed the scientific course and was graduated as a member of the class of 1875, receiving at the time the degree of Bach- elor of Science. Soon afterward he was chosen superintendent of the public schools at Holly, Michigan, where he remained two years, after which he held a similar position in the city of Marquette, that state, for an equal length of time. The next two years he was superintendent of the schools at Saline, that state, and then he passed a year in post-graduate work in his alma mater, the University of Michigan. He next became the instructor in natural sciences in the seminary at Ypsilanti, Michigan, this being practically the first high school ever established in the United States. He remained there for seven years, doing most efficient work and then, in 1888, came to Dakota. While a resident of Ypsilanti Professor Shepard published a text-book on chemistry, and the same is now used by the best schools in the Union, having passed through a number of revis- ions at his hands. It is used in three or four hun- dred colleges and normal schools and in more than one thousand high schools, while the work - was republished in England, by the Isbisters, and is now being used in Europe. It has practically superseded every text-book on the subject which was in the market at the time of its introduction. At the time when Professor Shepard prepared the text for this able work he was a young man and comparatively unknown in the field of science, and his manuscript was first put through the test

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of being submitted to expert criticism in three of the great educational institutions of America, Yale, Harvard and Johns Hopkins University, and the favorable reception which has been ac- corded indicates the technical superiority of the work. After coming to Brookings, South Da- kota, he issued an abridged course in chemistry, and this book has been extensively used in smaller and more elementary schools. In autumn of 1888 Professor Shepard took up the supervision of the chemical department of the State Agricul- tural College of South Dakota, the institution having at that time been maintained under the supervision of the still undivided territory of Dakota. In that year he equipped the laboratory and did the first work in analytical chemistry ever done in the state. For a time he was at the head of the departments of physics and pharmacy, con- tinuing in charge of the same until the growth of the department of chemistry demanded his entire attention. In the meanwhile he had given special time and attention to training two young men for the special work of the other two departments mentioned, and they still remain in charge of the same, being numbered among the valued instruc- tors of the college. Professor Shepard was vice- president of the institution for ten years and for five years was director of the government experi- ment station here maintained. He was for two years director of farmers' institutes in the state, and in 1901 received the appointment of state engineer of irrigation, of which office he is still incumbent. Within the last fifteen years he has issued many publications on the water, soils, crops, etc., of the state, in which line his services have been of inestimable value, while at the same time he has consecutively given his personal su- pervision to the work of the chemical department of the college and that of chemistry in the local experiment station. At the time of this writing he is giving special attention to investigation and experimentation in connection with the nitrogen control of the cereals, while under his direction are being carried on the milling and analyzing of the maccaroni wheats, which the United States department of agricultural is introducing in the state. He is also employed as a chemical expert

for the state dairy and food commission and acts in the same capacity for the state in those cases requiring his services.

He is the owner of a quarter section of valua- able land, one mile east of the college, and there he is giving special attention to the breding of Duroc Jersey swine, Shropshire sheep and Jersey cattle, all stock being thoroughbred and regis- tered, having one of the finest herds of Duroc Jersey swine in the northwest, while he is also growing the maccaroni seed wheat for the gov- ernment experiments.

In politics Professor Shepard is a stanch ad- vocate of the principles of the Republican party, and fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, in which he has attained the Knights Tem- plar degree, being a charter member of the com- mandery in Brookings. He holds membership in the American Association of Natural Sciences and also in the Society of Official Agricultural Chemists of the United States. He and his fam- ily are members of the Presbyterian church of Brookings, in which he is an elder and teacher of the bible class in the Sunday school, this being one of the largest classes in the state. His wife also is active in the church work, having been formerly secretary and treasurer of the Central South Dakota presbytery.

On the 28th of June, 1888, Professor Shepard was united in marriage to Miss Clara R. Durand, who was born in the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan, on the 30th of May, 1867, being a daughter of Seneca and Helen R. (Phelps) Durand, the lin- cage in the aguatic line tracing back to stanch French extraction. Seneca Durand was a son of Samuel W. and Catherine (Oren) Durand, the former of whom was born in Burlington, Ver- mont, in 1806, while he later became a resident of the state of Pennsylvania, where he held a posi- tion as superintendent of masonry in the employ of the state. He later became a pioneer of Geauga county, Ohio, where he was for a time engaged in mercantile pursuits, later becoming a drover. He was a prominent figure in the political affairs of Ohio, having been the first Democratic member of the state legislature from the Western Reserve. Seneca Durand was born in Pennsylvania, in

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1832, and was a child at the time of bis parents' removal to Ohio, where he received his educa- tional training. In 1858 he married Helen R. Phelps, of Westfield, New York, daughter of L. F. and Cornelia M. (Dustin) Phelps. His wife died on the 15th of October. 1902, at the home of the subject of this sketch. They were the parents of three children, namely : DeLacy. who is a railroad man, residing in Lansing, Mich- igan ; Samuel, who died at the age of two years ; and Clara R., who is the wife of Professor Shep- ard, of this sketeh. To Professor Shepard and wife have been born the following children : Helen Bernice, born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, July 25, 1889: Albert Durand, born June 27, 1891, and James Henry, Jr., born April 12, 1896.

DYER H. CAMPBELL. the able and popti- lar sheriff of Brookings county, is a native of the old Keystone state of the Union, having been born in the town of Edinboro, Erie county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of November, 1858, a son of John W. and Susan (Walker) Campbell. the former of whom was likewise born in that county, in 1817. being a son of John and Mary (Langhrey) Campbell, who were natives of Seotland. the grandfather having emigrated thenee to America in the early part of the seven- teenth century. He located in Pennsylvania, where he devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits. The father of the subject was likewise identified with the great hasic art of agriculture and was also engaged in the mer- cantile business in Edinboro, while he served two terms as a member of the Pennsylvania legis- lature. In 1865 he removed with his family to Olmstead county, Minnesota, where he was en- gaged in farming for the ensuing three years. In 1869 he removed to the town of Rochester, that county. where he was for six years an at- tache of the office of register of deeds. He served as justice of the peace and held other offices of local trust and responsibility, his death oceurring in Rochester in 1887. while his widow was summoned into eternal rest in 1892, at Moorhead, Minnesota. Of their three children

we enter the following brief record: John V. is a resident of Erie, Pennsylvania ; Martha J. be- came the wife of Arthur G. Lewis, of Moorhead, Minnesota, and is now deceased, and Dyer H. is the immediate subjeet of this sketch.

Dyer H. Campbell was seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Pennsyl- vania to Minnesota. and there he attended the (listriet schools until the family located in Rochester, where he continued his studies in the public schools for two or three years. At the age of fifteen years he initiated his independent career, securing a position in a meat market in Rochester, and being thereafter employed in the same and in a grocery about three years. He then secured a position in an abstract insurance office, in which he remained until 1881, when he came to Brookings, Dakota, having been married about two years previously. Upon arriving in Brookings he secured a position in what was then the Brookings County Bank, but is now the First National Bank, where he held the office of assistant cashier until the institution was re- organized, as the First National Bank, in 1883, from which time forward he continued to retain the position of assistant cashier until the Ist of January, 1903, when he resigned his office to as- sume the duties of the shrievalty, having been elected sheriff of the county in November of the preceding year, as the candidate of the Republican party. Sheriff Campbell served for fifteen terms as city treasurer of Brookings, while for seven- teen years he was secretary of the Brookings Building and Loan Association. For the past twenty years he has been identified with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and is one of its prominent representatives in the state, being at the present time grand master of the grand lodge in South Dakota. He is also a member of Brookings Lodge, No. 24. Free and Accepted Masons, as well as of the Modern Woodmen of America and other fraternal bodies of auxiliary character. He has served four years as chief of the fire department of Brookings, and has been chosen as incumbent for another term of two years. He is one of the wheelhorses of the Re- publiean party in the county, and is chairman of

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History of South Dakota, Vol. II, Part 75

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1138

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1138